LIFE AND MISSION

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a veritable phenomenon of the 20th

century. There may scarcely be a parallel indeed in the annals of
human history to the saga of struggle that his life represented.
Born in the family of ‘untouchables’, he could nonetheless scale
the highest peak of scholarship, leadership and statesmanship.
When the Hindu caste system had ordained severe punishment
for his community for so much as thirsting for education and
knowledge, he had secured the highest academic honours from
the most prestigious universities of the world and thus
conclusively refuted the basic premise of intrinsic inferiority or
superiority based on one’s birth proffered by the caste system.
For over two millennia, the Hindu caste system had perfected
itself into a self-sustaining mechanism of exploitation that
fossilised all the social relationship into a caste cauldron and in
process had completely robbed the labouring masses like
untouchables of their human identity. He had reclaimed for them
this identity, breathed political consciousness and galvanised
them into a vibrant movement that changed the course of Indian
politics. In the epic battle against the vile and complex caste
system, he had single-handedly performed the roles of a
researcher, a theoretician, an organiser, a journalist, a politician,
a leader etc. against all possible odds and still come out with
outstanding results. He was among few who dared the
contemporary might of the then Indian National Congress and
Mahatma Gandhi and stood his grounds even in the face of
threats to his life. At symbolical plane, Manu who was the evil
enemy in this epic battle as the code giver for the caste system,
had to concede defeat and make place for Ambedkar code in the
form of the Constitution of India. Eventually, he enacted the
biggest religious conversion in the history that ensconced him
with his western attire at the place alongside Buddha as the
spiritual deity for his people.

During his lifetime Dr. Ambedkar had consistently faced despise,

ignominy and insults at the hand of caste establishment. Even
after his death, despite his outstanding statesmanship and
sterling contributions like drafting the Constitution of India,
Ambedkar continued to be despised and ignored by the ungrateful
mainstream till the emerging imperatives of electoral politics
needed him. Before that, the mainstream even did not concede
him so much as leadership of all the untouchables and preferred
to belittle him by projecting as a leader of his own community. It
systematically either blacked him out from the recorded history
or allowed him place in its margins. It strove to confine him to a
small community of Maharashtra in which he was born. So
effective was this establishment cunning that barring a few
pockets outside Maharashtra, where the movement had
penetrated in his lifetime, he remained a stranger for a long time
to the very people for whom he lived and died. His published
writings were all out of print and were available only in a few
reputed libraries. A vast unpublished material was embroiled in
ownership disputes and hence was decomposing in the custody of
courts of law. A few biographies of Ambedkar, among them
notably one written by Dhanajay Keer in English (first published
1962) and the other written by Mr. B.C. Khairmode in multiple
volumes in Marathi (first volume published in April 1952 and the
last volume yet to come), that constituted the earliest source
material on Ambedkar had significantly contributed to spread
awareness and evoke curiosity about him. However, in absence of
an easy access to his original writings he was not even known to
the well-meaning intellectual community beyond certain heresies
and anecdotes. It is only as a result of struggles of his people
that claimed increasing space in contemporary politics and partly
influenced by the intrinsic need to woo dalits that the State
moved to undertake publication of his writings. The Government
of Maharashtra undertook to publish his writings and speeches
and came out with its first volume in April 1979. So far 16
volumes have been published which are being translated in Indian
languages of some States. Before this project, it needs to be
noted that many organisations and individuals claiming allegiance
to Ambedkar-thought had brought out reprints of his published
writings, compilation of his speeches scattered at many places,
and secondary material in his eulogy. It certainly did contribute
to spread awareness about the Ambedkar-thought, but due to
their meagre resources its reach remained acutely constrained.
This constraint was largely overcome when the Government of
Maharashtra offered his writings and speeches in well-edited
volumes at reasonable prices. Thanks to it, this publication,
particularly the ones containing his hitherto unpublished writings,
for the first time provided comprehensive introduction to the
treatise of his thoughts and expectedly gave impetus to
discussions and research work on Ambedkar-thought. The
eruption of dalit militancy in the form of Dalit Panthers
movement in 70s and the spate of anti-reservation flare ups in
80s, that shook the oppressors as well as oppressed, also
significantly motivated the study of Ambedkar-thought.

As the development process picked up momentum in the post-

independence period, the contradiction among the ruling classes
started growing which in turn manifested into many political
parties opening their shops in the electoral market of India. The
heat of competition impelled them to see the importance of the
vast market segment constituted by the dalit votes. The latter,
being one-fourth of the total market, was significant enough even
in any electoral constituency to tilt the scale. The broad
strategic response possible was either to fragment this segment,
which was easy to do along the existing sub-caste fissures, so as
to reduce it to insignificance level or to consolidate it and lure it
onto ones side. However, with the passage of time the trend of
dalits transcending their sub-caste boundaries and getting
emotionally bonded around Ambedkar was increasingly becoming
visible. As such the former negative strategy became less
attractive and was ostensibly adopted by only the hard-core
fascist parties. The large-scale adoption of the latter positive
strategy meant competition in claiming Ambedkar’s legacy that
manifested in hijacking Ambedkar away to the camps of the ruling
classes. This cooptation of Ambedkar by the mainstream politics
essentially resulted in significant displacement of the genuine
Ambedkar by the deformed Ambedkar in the gullible dalit
masses. The universal eulogy reflected from the process of
cooptation only helped latent tendency towards deification and
iconisation of Ambedkar and that virtually made it impossible to
review Ambedkar-thought as a living body in the context of
changing times and circumstances without incurring the sin of
sacrilege.

While the imperatives of electoral politics has changed the

attitude of State to the extent of cooptation of Ambedkar, the
civil society still reflects the casteist prejudice against him. The
process of globalisation driven by the imperialist institutions like
IMF and the World Bank since 1980s and which got formally
adopted by the Government of India in 1991, in the crisis-ridden
economic context unleashed new contradictions that manifested
among other, the resurgence of the Hindu fundamentalism. These
forces blatantly upheld everything that appeared conclusively
condemned by liberal ethos during the post-independence
decades. Ambedkar, as a symbol of these ethos naturally became
the target for their vicious attack. Currently these attacks could
be seen in the form of defilement of his statues and the pseudo-
intellectual cunning represented by some reactionary individuals.
Both, the cooptation as well as the vilification of Ambedkar are
detrimental to the dalit interests. However, the former is much
more injurious than the latter. While the latter represents open
opposition to the ideology the former would mean adulteration of
the ideology itself to suit the State interests. Unless, one is
thorough about the ideological nuances and vigilant about its
operative manifestations, it becomes extremely difficult to
arrest or contain the damage done through the process of
cooptation. The ideological weakness in turn incapacitates the
struggle in the realm of the civil society and even its
organisational apparatus. The present state of fragmentation of
the Dalit movement may be largely attributable to this ideological
weakness.

The problems of dalits are far from being resolved. Despite the
constitutional provision to the contrary, they are being
discriminated against day in and day out. This discrimination
ranges from the subtle prejudice exercised against them in the
modern sectors of economy in the urban areas to the stark
practice of untouchability in the rural areas. Another significant
constitutional influence on the dalits has been through the policy
of reservation in politics, education and services. While, this
policy implemented sincerely in political arena as it basically
serves the interests of the establishment and provides legitimacy
to the system, its implementation in other two spheres has been
utterly pathetic. Even over the five decades of its
implementation, the unsatisfactory representation of dalits
particularly in the higher echelon of services and consistent
denial of their dues by the executive as well as judiciary has
amply bared the fangs of the State. The condition of majority of
dalits in rural areas is no better than it existed five decades
before. Pulverisation of dalit politics under the rollers of
electoral allurements has incapacitated the dalit movement. The
dalits masses today feel utterly cheated but they do not have
wherewithal to see by whom.

The typical responses to the empirical state of the dalit masses

and their movement are essentially of two types. The first one
tends to externalise the failure by accusing the savarnas of
cheating or of failing to implement the promises made in the
Indian Constitution. The second one tends to internalise it in
terms of failure of practice by dalits, particularly the dalit
leaders and intellectuals. It accuses the dalit intellectuals and
politicians of having snapped themselves off their roots and of
betraying the dalit movement. They have come to be a class for
itself. Both represent partial truth at some level. These very
allegations however tend to submerge the basic question about
the efficacy of strategy of the movement and in turn of its
ideology that failed to firstly envisage and thereafter arrest the
undesired happenings. As for the leaders and the dalit
intellectuals (or more correctly the educated dalits), they
represent the output of the movement. Insofar as Ambedkar
represents a fountainhead of both the strategy as well as the
ideology of the dalit movement, his thoughts should constitute
essential terrain to search the causes of these failures.

The difficulty in this enterprise is immense despite much of

Ambedkar’s writings and speeches are available in English
language and a plethora of secondary and tertiary literature
having been published in recent times. Ambedkar lived through a
turbulent period of the Indian history, creating space for the
dalit movement within the interstices between the movements of
the contending classes with his meagre resources. His thoughts
are therefore heavily contextised by the dynamics of this
contention. While simultaneously trying to build the ideological
foundation for the movement, they tend to reflect expediency of
survival and his anxiety to maximise the short-term gains for
dalits. While it may not be difficult to discern the ideological
strains in his writings, the task of its precise definition
(exaction) poses problematic on two counts. First, many a familiar
construct and concept in his usage do not bear their familiar
meanings as indicated by him. For instance, while he adores the
dictum of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ propounded by Roussou
that blazed the French Revolution, he faults it and finds its
perfection in Buddha; while he reflects western liberalism and
admires its proponents, he denies being a liberal; while he appears
to accept the ideal of socialism in Marxism, he does not seem to
talk about the scientific socialism in it and rather finds his dream
world in Buddhist Sangha; while he accepts the premise that
there are classes in society in contradiction with each other, he
rejects the imperative of class struggle and foresees the class
conciliation through the constitutional methods. One could easily
go on listing the similar problematic of language. Indeed when
eventually, when he embraced Budhhism, it was not to be the
Buddhism familiar to the world but the one he interpreted to be
propounded by Buddha, the Dhamma of Buddha essentially of his
conception. Secondly, while he grants one freedom to test him out
on the principles of rationality and on the basis of experience, he
appears inaccessible for the purpose, well beyond the impregnable
fortification erected by the powerful vested interests.

The collapse of so called socialist regimes and consequent

emergence of the unipolar world order is casting its savage
shadow on the struggles of the oppressed people all over the
world. The ideology of neo-liberalism with the backing of modern
media and military might is fast marginalising the resistance and
transforming the world into a market where a person is granted a
hallowed identity of a customer. His claim to liberty, equality and
fraternity is conceded in proportion to his purchasing power in
the market where everything is a commodity. The impact of this
ideology is already visible in terms of gnawing inequality that is
compounding with every passing year. The odds for the oppressed
people are indeed mounting on every front. They face an
unprecedented ideological crisis today for effectively articulating
their emancipatory struggles. They need to objectively review the
weapons in their ideological armoury, to identify the ones that
could be regenerated, the ones that could be modified and the
ones that need to be altogether replaced. Ambedkar-thought
that constituted weaponry of dalits and oppressed people in
India, has certain attributes that could be used to recreate the
new weapons. It has certain regenerative potential to be of
continued relevance provided it is used in the desired manner and
not monopolised by the vested and sectarian interests. The time
has come to consolidate the ideological armour of the have-nots
of the world and the study of Ambedkar-thought here is
envisaged from that viewpoint. It is imperative that it is made
available to many people in the world. It is necessary that it be
subject to review from many viewpoints. It is vital that it is
evaluated on the basis of concrete experience. One respects
contributions of great people not in blind allegiance but by serving
the cause that he or she lived and died for. As Ambedkar said of
great people and demonstrated in relation to Buddha whom he
undoubtedly adored most, following him lies in not cold storing his
thoughts in a time vault but in constantly using it in the struggle,
constantly cleaning and honing it for its usage is bound to dirty it
and deform it, constantly review its effectiveness as with the
passage of time it might need supplement or replacement. Only
the concerted struggle of many committed people can restore
true Ambedkar to his people.